"With download code. Thirty-five years after they first crawled out of dark, suburban Springvale to spew their synth-punk filth over Melbourne and beyond, Primitive Calculators have made their first-ever studio album, aptly entitled The World Is Fucked. Stuart Grant, Denise Hilton, Dave Light, and Frank Lovece formed Primitive Calculators in 1978. They existed in bitter antipathy and vile hedonism in St. Kilda and Fitzroy until 1980, reformed briefly to appear in the 1986 film Dogs in Space (starring INXS Michael Hutchence), and then reconvened more permanently in 2009, at the invitation of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrows Parties festival at Mount Buller. Their original releases, classic synth-punk single I Cant Stop It/Do That Dance in 1979 and a posthumous live album from 1982, are now Holy Grails for collector scum around the world. French label Desire Records reissued both records in limited vinyl editions. Despite their vicious reputation, Primitive Calculators actually nurtured a thriving community of impromptu bands around them, now renowned worldwide as the "Little Bands" scene, including groups like Thrush And The C**ts, Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, and the incredible Take. Recorded with Neil Thomason (My Disco, The Slits) and mastered by David Walker (Lost Animal, Pikelet, Twerps, etc.), The World Is Fucked pulls no punches across its nine one-word songs. The sound is a kind of shimmering ball of white noise and malice, a floating miasma filled with all the bile most people never let emerge from their subconscious. The album also includes their version of a song they have been playing since the late 70s, "Nothing" by New York outsiders The Fugs. Thirty-five years later, bleaker, harsher and more desperately hilarious than ever, Primitive Calculators present The World Is Fucked -- the ultimate aural statement of aging, despair, and futility." -Chapter.

"Melbournes Primitive Calculators met as teenagers in the early 70s, growing up in the grim outer suburb of Springvale. An older friend who lived in a bungalow behind his parents house provided an oasis of culture, and there they were introduced to music of a kind rarely heard in their neighbourhood. The Velvet Underground and The MC5 were obvious heroes, but they were also inspired by lesser known bands like The Fugs, The 13th Floor Elevators, and The Godz (they went on to dedicate their album to Godz singer Jim McCarthy) as well as the writing of obsessive rock journalist Lester Bangs.
By 1977, they had deserted Springvale for the more musically liberated environs of St. Kilda, sharing a house in Park St and forming a band called The Moths. But they were a couple of years older than most of the punk bands starting up around them, and their uncultured accents clashed with the inner city, private school values of their so-called peers. Well-known figures like Nick Cave (The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party) and Ollie Olsen (Whirlywirld) would often come by to listen to borrow records, but the Primitive Calculators were always outsiders in Melbournes punk scene.
A move to Fitzroy in 1978 helped Primitive Calculators cement their own identity and develop a network of likeminded friends. The band set up a series of gigs called Little Band nights, where up to ten hastily-formed bands, with names like Too Fat To Fit Through The Door and Thrush & The Cunts, would play sets of fifteen minutes each.
Their own debut single was also released that year, featuring the songs �??I Cant Stop It�?� and �??Do That Dance�?�. Pressed with plain black labels and stark monochrome sleeve, the single introduced many to the impassioned, atonal, electronic chaos that was the Primitive Calculators trademark, and it has gone on to become a highly collectable classic of Australian post-punk.
The following year the band attempted to relocate to London, but seeing how difficult life was for fellow expats the Birthday Party and Whirlywirld, hey decided instead to take an indefinite break. A 1979 live recording of a gig supporting The Boys Next Door turned out to be the Primitive Calculators swansong. Released by friend and supporter Alan Bamford in the early 1980s, Primitive Calculators is a crucial document of a band whose originality, power and humorously belligerent Australian mindset has never since been duplicated.
But the story didnt end there, as the Primitive Calculators had an unexpected renaissance in 1986, when filmmaker Richard Lowenstein included them in his feature Dogs In Space (starring a young Michael Hutchence). The Primitive Calculators reformed to appear in the movie and recorded their song �??Pumping Ugly Muscle�?� for the soundtrack (the song was also released as a 12�?� with some original late 70s recordings on the B-side).
The Primitive Calculators revival continued a good fifteen years later when Chapter Music released the pioneering Cant Stop It! compilation CD of Australian late 70s/early 80s post-punk. The CD took its name from the Primitive Calculators track �??I Cant Stop It!�?� and included an original 1979 recording of �??Pumping Ugly Muscle�?�.
Chapter Musics reissue of the Primitive Calculators album, twenty-five years after its original release, includes six bonus tracks (four by the Primitive Calculators, one by the Moths and one by a nameless Primitive Calculators/Whirlywirld hybrid band, recorded in the UK) plus a rarely seen video made for the �??I Cant Stop It�?� single by band friend Janis Lesinskis." - Chapter Music. Highly recommended!

"After reissuing the landmark 1979 live album by Melbournes ferocious synth-punk snarlers Primitive Calculators in late 2004, Chapter Music follows up with a crucial compilation of tracks by Primitive Calculators and their friends from the legendary Melbourne Little Band scene.
Including the Calculators only studio recording, the single I Cant Stop It b/w Do That Dance, plus the Little Bands compilation EP (both originally released in 1979 and now highly prized collectors items), plus numerous live and rehearsal recordings, the CD examines a particularly fertile and distinctive time in Melbourne music history, which has been discussed in hushed tones ever since. It takes in bands with names like Thrush And The Cunts and Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, and ranges from disaffected Fitzroy art-punk to Sudanese tribal chanting recorded in London.
With liner notes culled from a revealing interview with Prim Calcs members Dave Light, Denise Hilton and Frank Lovece, plus rare photos and song lyrics, Primitive Caluclators And Friends is a revelatory companion piece to their live album, which received a rave review from Maximum RocknRoll and a 10 out of 10 Album of the Month feature in Australian Vice Magazine, amongst other stellar reviews on its reissue two years ago." - Chapter Music. Restocked!

"Primitive Calculators release their first new studio efforts since 1979. Thirty-three years after their classic first single I Cant Stop It, Melbournes hilarious synth-punk snarlers are working on a new studio album to be released in 2013. They reformed in 2009 at the invitation of the Nick Cave-curated All Tomorrows Parties festival. "Sick Of Myself" is a new song expressing all the ridiculousness of being in a synth-punk band in your mid 50s, while "Cunt Life" is a 1977 classic originally performed by pre-PCs band The Moths, now finally recorded for posterity." -Chapter Music.

"Thirty-five years after they first crawled out of dark, suburban Springvale to spew their synth-punk filth over Melbourne and beyond, Primitive Calculators have made their first-ever studio album, aptly entitled The World Is Fucked. Stuart Grant, Denise Hilton, Dave Light, and Frank Lovece formed Primitive Calculators in 1978. They existed in bitter antipathy and vile hedonism in St. Kilda and Fitzroy until 1980, reformed briefly to appear in the 1986 film Dogs in Space (starring INXS Michael Hutchence), and then reconvened more permanently in 2009, at the invitation of the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds-curated All Tomorrows Parties festival at Mount Buller. Their original releases, classic synth-punk single I Cant Stop It/Do That Dance in 1979 and a posthumous live album from 1982, are now Holy Grails for collector scum around the world. French label Desire Records reissued both records in limited vinyl editions. Despite their vicious reputation, Primitive Calculators actually nurtured a thriving community of impromptu bands around them, now renowned worldwide as the "Little Bands" scene, including groups like Thrush And The C**ts, Too Fat To Fit Through The Door, and the incredible Take. Recorded with Neil Thomason (My Disco, The Slits) and mastered by David Walker (Lost Animal, Pikelet, Twerps, etc.), The World Is Fucked pulls no punches across its nine one-word songs. The sound is a kind of shimmering ball of white noise and malice, a floating miasma filled with all the bile most people never let emerge from their subconscious. The album also includes their version of a song they have been playing since the late 70s, "Nothing" by New York outsiders The Fugs. Thirty-five years later, bleaker, harsher and more desperately hilarious than ever, Primitive Calculators present The World Is Fucked -- the ultimate aural statement of aging, despair, and futility. Surprisingly, its really fun to listen to." - Chapter Music

"Cult Melbourne band Primitive Calculators cut a single in 1979 before splitting in the true punk fashion. A posthumous eponymous live album was released in 1981 and that was it. These two tracks are as fresh now as they were more than 30 years ago: in a style not dissimilar to the Screamers or Cabaret Voltaire (circa Nag Nag Nag), Primitive Calculators used raw monophonic synth lines with scratchy guitars and screaming vocals, but the songs stood on their own (as the unplugged version of "Do That Dance" that appears on the Primitive Calculators and Friends 1979-82 could testify). The original 7" is now incredibly rare and hard to find and this reissue is its exact replica. First pressing limited to 500 copies." -Desire.

"The Holy Grail of the 70s punk/synth-punk Australian scene is now reissued in its original form for the first time on vinyl. Desire is proud to release the very first Primitive Calculators debut album. Originally out in 1982 in a very limited edition vinyl including a postcard, the eponymous album was recorded live in 1979 at Hearts, North Carlton, supporting the Boys Next Door. Often described as the "Australian Screamers," Primitive Calculators were one of the few Aussie bands to mix minimal synth, bass, scratchy guitars, repetitive drum machine beats reminiscent of their California cousins and also touches of Cabaret Voltaire. This impossibly hard-to-find item is now available on vinyl for the first time since 1982 and this second pressing includes an exact replica of the sleeve -- black vinyl with black labels, and a postcard. Limited edition of 210 copies. Last pressing with the postcard." -Desire.